[RTTY] Hating QTC's in WAE

[Scott Nichols]

This debate is bugging me...

First, we have gone from being required to draw diagrams of 
superhetrodye receivers and long, tough essay questions, to 100 multiple 
choice answers (available for all to memorize) to get a basic ham 
ticket...Then we went from having to know 15 wpm CW to 5 wpm CW to (and 
soon NO CW) get an advanced, full-HF ticket ( here in VE land 
anyway)...Why does everything have to go the way of being EASY ???

QTC's are a CHALLENGE...They require you to:

#1...LEARN something...How to run software, how to be able to copy more 
than "5nn 5" in a contest (talk about BORING useless information)...What 
could possibly be more boring than typing VE1OP into your logging 
program and having "Zone 5" automatically entered for you ? Being BORING 
or USELESS info is not the point at all...The point is, it's an exchange 
of info, required by the contest sponsors...It's tough but it's 
different and it's fun..Those of you who say you will never do WAE 
contests unless they get rid of QTC's, obviously have never tried it so 
how do you know it's boring ???...Do you really care what year VE1OP was 
first licensed, as required bt SS ? Do you really care how old I am ??? 
or what time it is ??? These are all required exchanges in other 
contests, but I dont see anyone complaining about those...

and,

#2...MAKE decisions...Last weekend, I sat here for 30 hours, often 
having to make the decision of whether or not to ask to exchange QTC's 
with another station...Is the QSB too severe ? Is he strong enough to 
copy well enough ? If not, I waste lots of  time asking for repeats...If 
I'm successful, I watch my score jump by 5,000 points...Thats FUN...The 
info you receive in a QTC is unpredictable by any logging program...You 
have to be able to actually copy it correctly...Uh oh...Computer won't 
do it for you this time...Gotta make that decision all by yourself...Do 
I stick to 15 m where I can easily get QTC"s vs going to 10 m to get 
some mults, but QSB is to severe to copy QTC's ???

If ya don't like QTC's, go watch TV ( as someone else suggested 
earlier)...I personally don't like the Sprint formats, that's why you 
don't hear me in them...I use those weekends for TV watching or taste 
testing Captain Morgan to make sure they still make fine quality rum...

Granted, copying a QTC in RTTY or CW is mostly done by  mouse clicks, 
but it's a helluva lot more fun and challenging than typing a callsign, 
hitting the space bar, waiting for the other guy to stop TX, hitting 
ENTER and moving on to the next guy in the pileup...More work too, but 
it keeps the eyes open...

QTC's ( and lots of them ) are necessary to place well in this 
contest...Look at Dinks Claimed Scores...Those with lots of QTC's are on 
top, those without them are not...

Just my 2 cents worth...I look forward to this one every year...It's one 
of my favourites, because of the QTC's...

73, Scott VE1OP